Beatrix Wilhelmina von Amsberg (born 1938) became queen of The Netherlands in 1980. An intelligent and strong willed woman, she had to reconcile her personal independence with the duties of a constitutional monarch.

Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina von Amsberg was born January 31, 1938, at Soestdijk Palace in Baarn, The Netherlands. As the first-born child of Princess (later Queen) Juliana, the heiress to the Dutch throne, and Prince Bernhard, she was first in the line of succession after her mother. This status was confirmed with the birth of Marijke (later Christine) in 1947, a girl like the three other royal children. Under the constitutional provisions then in force, sons had priority over daughters in the royal succession. Thus, by then it was clear that Beatrix would not be displaced by a younger brother.

In May 1940, together with her grandmother, Queen Wilhelmina, and her parents and younger sister, Irene, she escaped from the German invasion...